Realignment still concerns officials

Despite worries, recidivism programs appear to be working

STOCKTON - Officials are still concerned about the flood of criminals handled by the local justice system since the start of a statewide shift of responsibility for some offenders known as realignment.

STOCKTON - Officials are still concerned about the flood of criminals handled by the local justice system since the start of a statewide shift of responsibility for some offenders known as realignment.

In San Joaquin County, it has sent thousands more inmates to a jail required to release inmates early to prevent overcrowding, according to a report released this week looking at the first year of realignment.

Outside of jail, realignment has put more offenders under the watch of probation officers and into programs intended to prevent recidivism.

And the county report shows these attempts at keeping low-level offenders from committing new crimes seem to be working.

"That's encouraging, and these are some good preliminary numbers," Chief Probation Officer Stephanie James said.

The Board of Supervisors will hear a presentation of the new report at its regular meeting Tuesday.

The report is the most-detailed look to date of the impact of realignment in San Joaquin County, drawing data and input from across the local criminal justice system and other county agencies from October 2011 through September 2012.

It shows the importance the county has placed on making data-driven decisions, James said, though she said there are limits to what only a year's worth of data can show.

Realignment came down from the state in an effort to relieve overcrowding in the California prison system. Also known as AB109, after the Assembly Bill that created it, the idea was that counties could handle lower-level felons more efficiently while keeping offenders from committing more crimes by providing drug treatment, counseling, help finding jobs and other services.

Realignment redefined sentencing of certain felonies so most nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual crimes that could have landed an offender in state prison would instead bring sentences to be served locally, even if it meant a several-year stay in county jail.

There were 552 offenders sentenced under the new rules in the first year.

The inmates who were in state prison before the start of realignment in 2011 for these lower-level offenses were not moved to county jails. But upon their release, these inmates are now supervised by county probation officers instead of state parole agents. However, the category is based on the most recent offense, and these inmates could still have histories of committing violent or sexual crimes.

One part of the new report provides a detailed look at the 911 offenders who fit this category.

About 10 percent of this group committed a new crime while under supervision that first year. Some of the 93 people had multiple convictions. The most common crime committed was auto theft. And of the 142 crimes convicted, 11 were violent.

Realignment also meant parole violators would serve in county jails up to 180 days instead of being returned to prison. This applies to almost all parole violators, regardless of their original crime.

These parole violators flooded San Joaquin County Jail in the first year of realignment, far exceeding initial state estimates.

The report describes a "dramatic" impact on the jail, which processed 2,244 inmates because of realignment. Parole violators accounted for 1,998, or 89 percent, of this influx. Many are released after only days in custody, officials said.

That is because the county jail is frequently at capacity. And for the past 20 years, it has been under a court order to prevent overcrowding that results in inmates released before completing their sentences.

The county's realignment plan includes trying to reduce this pressure through sentencing that will have less-dangerous offenders serving at least part of their sentences outside the jail.

Of the 552 new offenders sentenced in the first year of realignment, 360, or 65 percent, received split sentences in the county.

A split sentence both frees up jail space and allows the released inmates to take part in programs under supervision that could help reduce recidivism, according to the report.

Programs meant to reduce recidivism increased inside the jail, too. These weren't restricted to realignment inmates and 2,062 people in the first year participated in programs for everything from anger management, to substance abuse counselling to parenting classes.

Despite efforts to make room in the jail, inmates have been released early.

Some have gone on to commit shocking crimes, either in the first year or more recently.

Jerome DeAvila was charged by prosecutors for allegedly raping and killing his 76-year-old grandmother last month, about a week after he was released early on a parole violation sentence.

Raoul Leyva was convicted in February for beating his girlfriend into a coma last April, causing significant brain damage. The attack occurred after Leyva had served two days of a 100-day sentence for violating parole.

Under realignment, all parolees are returned to county jails if they violate their parole, except in cases when the original sentence was for life, according to the report.

County officials are looking at other ways to ease crowding at the jail. The county's seeking funding to build a facility for the least-dangerous offenders that's more akin to a halfway house than a jail. And plans are in the works to relieve some of the crowding by releasing people awaiting trial.

The plan includes determining how risky it would be to release a particular inmates.

Data from the first year's report will help that, too, Chief Probation Officer James said. Realignment supervision included assessing the risk somebody might commit another crime. Based on the numbers, it looks like the risk is being accurately measured, she said.

"It tells us that our risk-assessment tool is working."

Realignment is complicated, and so is measuring its success, said Magnus Lofstrum, a research fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California and co-author of report "Evaluating the Effects of California's Corrections Realignment on Public Safety.

It has been able to reduce the population in the state prisons, but there has yet to be a comprehensive study looking at recidivism and the impact of realignment on crime, he said. And each county is different.

"I believe there are a variety of approaches and responses to realignment," and it's important for a county to look at the data along the way, he said.

"It's a very good - and necessary - use of resources," he said. Otherwise, you don't know what is working, he said.

Even if realignment solves the state's overcrowding problem, it might happen at the expense of the counties, said Ken Vogel, chairman of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors. He noted recent reports of inmate advocates starting to file the same kind of lawsuits over conditions that had been filed against the state.

Because of San Joaquin County's court-capped jail, Vogel said he is concerned about how realignment could be contributing to crime, he said. "I don't know if we have a full understanding of that impact yet."